Russia, Turkey to mutually recognize aircraft certificates

The measure was requested by a Turkish customer for Russian Kamov Ka-32 rotorcraft (Russian Helicopters)

At the NAIS 2018 convention currently being held in Moscow, Alexander Neradko, who heads Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA), and Can Erel, deputy director general of Turkey’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, signed a working agreement on aircraft airworthiness. The documents paves the way to simplified procedures for the mutual recognition of aircraft certification documents.

Russia and Turkey will now introduce a “favorable environment” for bilateral aircraft exports and imports, with documents issued by one of the two countries to be recognized by the other.

The signing of the agreement was requested by the Turkish carrier Kaan Air, which has three Russian-made Kamov Ka-32A11BC multirole helicopters on order. The first aircraft should be delivered this spring. 

The process of mutual audits began in 2017, and led to both countries’ coming to the conclusion that their airworthiness and flight safety assessment systems are similar and in line with ICAO standards, Neradko said.

A similar agreement between FATA and the Chinese aviation authorities is also in the works in the run-up to the certification of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jetliner in China.

An agreement on aircraft certificates was signed by FATA and EASA in late January 2018. It allows for simplified certification and validation procedures between the partners. Following the transfer in Russia of certification functions from the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAAC) to FATA, EASA audited the new certification body’s capacities and experience. The agreement is aimed at supporting international exports of Russian-made aircraft.